Erasing the Invisible Hand : Essays on an Elusive and Misused Concept in Economics

Cover -- Title -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Preface -- 1 Adam Smith's Invisible Hand and the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences -- 1.1. The Research Protocols of Economics, the Ironies That Result from Them, and Other Preliminaries -- 1.2. Adam Smith and Some Nobel Prizes -- 1.3. The Foundational Concept of Economics -- 1.4. Exaggeration Criticized -- 1.5. Some History of the Use of the Concept of the Invisible Hand -- 1.6. Adam Smith's Three Known Uses -- 1.7. The Fecundity of Smith's Analysis as Shown by E. K. Hunt -- 2 The Political Economy of Adam Smith -- 2.1. The Interpretation of Adam Smith -- 2.2. Smith's Synoptic and Synthetic System -- 2.3. Interdependence and Tensions -- 2.4. Present Significance -- 3 On the Identities and Functions of the Invisible Hand -- 3.1. Introduction -- 3.2. The Identities of the Invisible Hand -- 3.3. The Functions of the Invisible Hand -- 3.3.1. Order -- 3.3.2. Automaticity -- 3.3.3. Coordination -- 3.3.4. Equilibrium -- 3.3.5. General Harmony and Benevolence -- 3.3.6. Harmony of/among Self-Interests -- 3.3.7. Pareto Optimality -- 3.3.8. Harmony of Self-Interest with Social Interest, or Welfare -- 3.3.9. Economic Performance -- 3.4. Conclusion -- 4 Adam Smith's History of Astronomy Argument How Broadly Does It Apply? And Where Do Propositions That "Sooth the Imagination" -- 4.1. Introduction: The Principles That Lead and Direct Philosophical Inquiries -- 4.2. How Broadly Does Smith's Argument Apply? -- 4.3. The Sources of Propositions That Soothe the Imagination -- 4.4. The System of Belief and the Mythic System of Society -- 4.5. The System of Belief -- 4.6. Social Control as a Social Construction of Reality: The Struggle for Power and Control of the State -- 4.7. Conclusion -- 5 The Invisible Hand, Decision Making, and Working Things Out -- 5.1. Introduction.